The whole establishment is shown to visitors, as one way of entertaining them; and frequently they get up a dance among themselves, or call in the dancing girls with their castanets.
Upon intimation of departure, sherbet is served; after which the visit is terminated, and the guest reconducted in the same manner in which she was
It is true that a Harem is generally composed of an assemblage of women, but not such as the public usually imagine.
Although the Mussulmans are allowed by the Koran to have several wives, there are few who have more than one, especially at the present day; a fact not to be, however, attributed to any new code of morality, but rather to the coercion of circumstances.
It was the practice of the Arabs to have eight or ten wives, whom they were seldom able to maintain. Mohammed, wishing to remedy this evil, and not altogether to abolish ancient usages, limited the number--"Take in marriage of such women as please you, two, or three or four, and not more. But if ye fear that ye cannot act equitably to so many, marry only one, or the slaves which ye shall have acquired." They were allowed to marry a greater number of slaves, as their dowry was much smaller, and they were maintained in a very different style from the free women.
As the Osmanlis have a remarkable love of offspring, it often happens that a man having had no children by a wife, and unwilling to divorce her, which is considered discreditable, takes a second one in imitation of Abraham and Jacob and many other patriarchs of old, whose practices were but the type of the habits of all Oriental people, even those of the present day. But such a step being often the source of domestic difficulty, the substitution of a slave in the place of a second wife is generally preferred--and such slaves are retained in the harem with the appellation of Odaluk or handmaid, like Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah. When these Odaluks become mothers, by right of their maternity, they acquire their freedom and are considered second wives.
A man may, however, be induced to contract a second marriage either from mercenary or ambitious motives.
When circumstances or selfish inclinations induce the Mussulmans to have several wives, they are obliged to assign to each one private apartments and attendants. These ladies, although often living under the same roof, visit each other with all the etiquette of perfect strangers, and require an expenditure for retinue and accommodations, which can only be sustained by wealth.